Stone Walls
by Star Fata
Summary: For ten years, Eva Wei was forbidden to leave the grounds of Stern Boarding. What did that do to her?


AN- This was intended to be an A:tLA crossover, but it got too complicated. I'll try the crossover another time, but for now I give you Stone Walls.

Her mother had been interested in legends. Time and time again she'd tell stories of the mythical air nomads, who'd been free as the wind, going where they pleased and making friends of all nations. Maya had loved the wind, and taught her daughter to value freedom and friends above all others, remembering the basic tenets of life, the right to freedom means respecting the views of others, for they are free to make their own choices, as you are. Friends are to be respected as being different to you, but let your differences bind you closer rather than use them to drive you apart. She'd exemplified these traits right until her death, bound only by the ties she chose.

Then her father, lost to his grief, left her in Stern Boarding School. _These are the rules and you must obey, these are the walls in which you must remain, this is how you should be and this is what you should do._

She'd had a nightmare once, of all those rules jumping out of the various rulebooks and textbooks and off the guidelines on the walls, wrapping around her throat and choking her until she woke up gasping for breath. It had been an extremely accurate dream, as far as she was concerned. Rules would be the death of her.

Stone walls everywhere she went. In the classes, the dorms, even the grounds were enclosed with stone and steel. She felt like a rat in a labyrinth, with barely even the illusion of freedom.

Then she found the roof. It was high enough to allow her to see over those damnable walls, and the sounds of teenagers and children were indistinct and distant. There was a ledge, just a little lower than the rest, where she could place her feet, _and it was the perfect sanctuary for a girl being strangled by rules_. No one ever came up to the roof, since they saw no point. There was no real place to sit, and no protection from the wind that left Eva's hair tangled, even on a calm day. She loved it.

Shortly after she found the roof, she had a dream. She was a child, on the roof of Stern Boarding in the same red coat she'd worn when her father had dropped her off. Then Mommy and Daddy were there, Daddy with his dark hair, not a trace of the white she could see on television, and Mommy was just as beautiful and whimsical as she'd been the day she died. They'd taken her hands, stepped off the roof and flown away, leaving a teenage Eva behind.

She'd been tempted to follow them, but knew she'd only fall. She woke up in tears.

As she grew older, she knew that even the roof wasn't enough. The walls felt closer and closer every passing day, and with no parental permission she was trapped. She had to get out. Had to, _had to, __**had to.**_

Her first few escapes only lasted a few hours. She had nowhere to run, and like a prisoner, she'd been institutionalized. She had no idea how the people outside the walls functioned, only what she could puzzle out from fuzzy childhood memories and eavesdropping on her classmate's conversations. She was terrified the first time she left, so she began slipping out the walls more and more often, trying to get used to the idea that she could walk for half an hour in one direction without hitting a wall.

It was _terrifying. _And the world was different, with no mommy or daddy to pick her up and explain things.

But it was worth it. As she adjusted to a world without walls, she began her escape attempts, trying to rid herself of the walls for good. There was a world of difference between slipping away for an hour or two and never coming back. The first few attempts didn't go so well. Then she was 15, and flying away as fast as she could, running to the only place she could think of. _Wei Racing._

And then she was Molly, Mechanic, Stowaway and Star-Racer. She was free, with only the boundaries she'd taken upon herself. _Don't talk about Stern, don't slip up, __**win**__. _Then they tried to force a new rule on her, one that went against everything she'd chosen to be. _Win at any cost._

That... didn't go so well.

Aikka's fury hurt. Jordan being mad at her hurt. People outside the walls were so _strange_. She didn't understand...

_Why can't we be friends?_

Finally, they were at Oban. Rick was gone, the only person who knew she was Eva, and Aikka didn't hate her anymore! He was still mad at Jordan, but that was okay because they were boys and hadn't liked each other in the first place. She suspected that Satis knew something was off about her, but he'd been nice so she'd reserve judgement. As the Avatar's assistant, he could probably take her down if he wanted. Ned had pulled the harmless old man act enough times that she was instantly wary of any nice old man. Principal Stern had no idea he was collecting information on the school for 'interested parties'.

Then Aikka wasn't nice any more. He was mean, dishonourable and desperate, and she was never going to be his friend again. Thank the stars she still had Jordan.

Don knew. He knew, and he was sorry, but there was no time. She had to go race, so she could get mom back and everything would be okay. Mom wouldn't lock her away in stone walls again. Don had only said he was sorry for leaving, not for locking her away.

Except then she found out the truth behind the ultimate prize. To be the Avatar, unable to leave Oban, chained to the planet for _ten thousand years_.

It was her worst nightmare come to life. And she'd be forever grateful to Jordan for sparing her from it.


End file.
